The present invention relates to geometric layouts of trench semiconductor devices.
In many semiconductor devices, such as modern power MOSFET devices, it is desirable for the device to provide a high breakdown voltage that prevents reverse biasing and avalanche breakdown of the diode barriers of the device. In these devices, application of a reverse bias voltage across a diode barrier creates a depletion region in which the voltage gradient present there causes acceleration of charge carriers and the formation of electron-hole pairs by collisions between the charge carriers and dopant atoms. The electron-hole pairs generally migrate to opposite sides of the depletion region; however, higher levels of reverse bias voltage create higher electric fields in the depletion region, which accelerate the electron-hole pairs to a degree that results in further collisions that form further electron-hole pairs. This multiplication of charge carriers can eventually result in conduction of current in the reverse direction across the diode barrier, which is the condition known as avalanche breakdown of the device.
One technique that has been successfully employed to increase the breakdown voltage of a MOSFET device is to form the device as a trench semiconductor device. A trench semiconductor device consists of a plurality of parallel, interior MOS trenches formed in a semiconductor layer, with each trench being lined with dielectric material and then filled with a conductive material such as metal or doped polysilicon. In addition, an exterior trench is formed around an outside region of the device, having at least a portion generally perpendicular to the interior trenches. The gaps between the trenches effectively terminate the electric fields that tend to converge at the edges of the conductive legs formed in each trench, which results in a higher breakdown voltage. U.S. Pat. No. 6,683,363 illustrates an example of a trench semiconductor device.
Further developments in the geometry of a trench semiconductor device can provide characteristics and results that advance the state of the art, such as in terms of performance, cost, space efficiency, or others, or to simply provide an alternative configuration that may be appropriate for selected applications.